“Pretty straightforward – give POTUS the opportunity to say this under oath instead of on Twitter,” Deutch tweeted in response to the president’s tweet.

By contrast, Intel Committee Republicans did not question the truthfulness of Comey’s claims that Trump demanded Comey’s “loyalty” and wanted investigators of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn‘s Russia ties to “let this go.”

Instead, Rubio pressed Comey on why, if the Flynn conversation was so “disturbing,” he didn’t initially raise qualms about it. Rubio also asked Comey why, amid so many other leaked details of the Russia probe, he wouldn’t publicly declare that Trump was not the target of an investigation.

Team Trump, however, isn’t merely trying to put the most favorable spin on the president’s dealings with Comey.